UMUC Team Places in Top Three of National Cybersecurity Competition

The Padawans, comprised of undergraduate cybersecurity students, placed third out of 53 teams at The MITRE Corporation's 2012 Capture the Flag Cyber Challenge, held July 9–10. The competition, which was open to undergraduate and high school students, drew entries from across the country, with teams from Cal Poly San Luis Obispo (first place), the University of South Florida (second place), Carnegie Mellon University (fourth place) and the Polytechnic Institute of New York University (fifth place) rounding out the top five finishers.

The Padawans comprised four students: John Arneson, Benjamin Heise, Armando Quintananieves and team leader Justin Wray. The team was coached by Dr. Jeff Tjiputra, academic director of Cybersecurity and Computer Networks & Security in UMUC's Undergraduate School; UMUC alumnus Chris Kuehl served as the team's technical advisor.

The team thanks all the UMUC staff who have helped make this success possible, including Debbie Horowitz and Robin Brooks, who helped with the facility arrangements, and Robert Scherrer from Largo IT, who helped with technical support.